Landlord in breach of rental agreement

madfrenchgirl

Hi fellow MSErs,

I was wondering if anyone would be kind enough to help my sister in law... She's moved into a lovely looking place but the landlord comes from hell and will not fix things. With her permission, I am posting her summary of the situation on here at the bottom of this message.

What would be her legal recourse? My husband thinks she should write to her landlord saying that since the property is not up to the standards originally agreed on when the tenants moved in, they (the tenants, it is a house share) will withold a certain amount of the rent until the problems are fixed.

Any advice is greatly appreciated, as usual :-)

From SIL:
-Rat infestation problem: the rats in the walls where there when we moved in 5 months ago. It took the landlord up until 2 weeks ago just to send a pest control man around. I would email him every time I heard them in my walls - he often did not reply at all.
-No Hot Water: the hot water is on the 3rd week of not working - we have had electricians and gas men in 6 times they all leave saying they don't know what the problem is.
-Unlawful Entry: our landlord continues to break contract by not giving us 24hours notice. He walked into our house yesterday and turned on the immersion heater without our permission - it was on all day till we came home from work. Of course, we are paying the bill.
-Unsightly Garbage in Garden: he put the sofas that he felt were unsuitable for the flat out in the garden - he has not had them removed for 5 months. It's a garden, not a landfill.
-Faulty Washing Machine:we didn't have a washing machine for 2 months because, when we moved in, the washing machine was broken.

CloudCuckooLand

contact local council Environmental Health re rats and lack of hot water.

Follow Shelter's "withholding rent to pay for repairs" advice;
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repairs_and_bad_conditions/repairs_in_social_housing/withholding_rent_over_repairs

RAS

Stop sendign e-mails and write a letter every time. Send two copies from different post offices and then he cannot claim he did not receive them.

madfrenchgirl

Well, it looks like the situation has moved on quite quickly...

My SIL now think all the tenants of the house may be getting evicted. 2 of her housemates told the landlord they were witholding rent along with an email detailing all the reasons. The landlord rang them back immediately (funny that) and said that since they were unhappy with the house and this month was the last month of their agreed tenancy, then they should all consider moving out.
They all seriously doubt he would renew the tenancy since they are such "fussy tenants".

My SIL is going to withold rent as well but has not yet informed him.

Is it possible at all for them to seek compensation for the loss of "quiet enjoyment of the property"?

Also, is it possible to make sure he is "inconvenienced" into fixing the problems in the property before racketeering... ooops! renting it out to other tenants?

ruggedtoast

Unfortunately you dont have any legal recourse to withhold rent and that makes the tenant immediately in breach, and liable for a CCj at worst.

At best there is some dispensation to getting quotes yourself for the work, sending them to the landlord, and then having the cheapest one done yourself. Shelter can advise on that and the legality of deducting the cost from your rent.

Sounds unfair, unfortunately thats renting in the UK.

madfrenchgirl

TBH, it looks like they won;t even have time to request quotes and withold rent legally.

What a lot of toss: get a new set of tenants in for a 6 months tenancy agreement, get a nice neat little income coming in every month, ignore complaints and when the tenancy is up, get rid of them.


Wash, rinse, repeat.

I am glad I always lived in lodgings before buying our house: it can be a pain to live with the landlords but if something needs fixing they will fix it cos it affects them directly.

RAS

So start by calling the Environmental health people and the private tenancy support officer in the Council. They may just put him out of business.

00ec25

be careful - you say it is a houseshare and so this could have important consequences...

- does each tenant have individual contracts or are they on a Joint and Several liability contract. If the latter then anyone withholding rent means the LL can recover the missed rent from either that person OR from any one or more of the other tenants - ie you are all equallly liable for each other, but can be pursued individuallly for the total rent covering all

- is the property a HMO? If yes then the LL has a right to enter communal areas when he wants, "quite enjoyment" would only apply to the actual bedroom defined in the tenancy agreement. Whilst this does not alow the LL to turn on the immersion heater it is not clear from your post if the immersion heater is in a communal area in which case the LL has every right to be physically there but not to do anything

GCH888

As a LL myself I'm amazed by how much hardship some tenants put up with.

For the property I rent out I take out the British Gas LL Homecare agreement covering EVERYTHING. Even the sodding fridge freezer is covered for repairs. My own home isn't as protected as my tenants. I guess it could be because I'm new to this LL malarky and I'm simply too naive to survive long term in this business.